Wesleyan vs Haverford vs Oberlin

<p>so I got really lucky and got into my top 3 LACs (Wooh!!!!)
I was really sad when I didn't get into HPYS- but I think I'll probably prefer a liberal arts college anyways so it's okay
Haverford, Wesleyan and Oberlin
All of which I LOVED
But now I have to choose :(:(:(
ahhhhhhhhhhh</p>

<p>I really don't know which one to go to............
I'm hoping to be a History and/or Music major
With the hope of being a professor or producer someday
I also definitly want to go to grad school, and hopefully get a second shot at the Ivy's</p>

<p>I've heard Wesleyan and Oberlin are great for music, but I was wondering at Oberlin if you aren't part of the conservatory how easy is it to be integrated into the music scene? Also I loved Wes's ethnomusicology program, but are there many student bands and music opportunities there? </p>

<p>Also I'm a bisexual guy and want a really liberal campus where there are alot of openly gay people (more dating prospects haha)- I know that wes and oberlin are like that but I don't know about haverford- It seemed kinda conservative when I visited.</p>

<p>I don't personally use drugs, but I have absolutely no problem with other people using them </p>

<p>I really liked haverford's honor code and the whole bond between the students and faculty thing- my main concern is that it may not be as strong in music or history as the other two- and it might be more conservative than I'm looking for</p>

<p>Thanks everybody!</p>

<p>Wow, congratulations to you! Three great schools. I can’t answer all of your questions but absolutely Wesleyan has many student bands, which seem to emerge organically. See [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.wesleying.org%5DWesleying%5B/url”&gt;http://www.wesleying.org]Wesleying[/url</a>] for many blog posts about what is going on musically there. All three schools, if you study hard in school, will prepare you well for grad school in the Ivy League. I am an alum of Wes, so I am biased but after my son visited 27 colleges all over the US, he opted for Wesleyan Early Decision, much to my surprise and delight. IMHO Wes was a great place to go to school thirty years ago and it’s become an even better place now. Good luck with your choice and have a great time in the fall wherever you go!</p>

<p>most of your questions weren’t about Wes, but yes, there is a lot of student-generated music on campus. see [AURAL</a> WES](<a href=“http://auralwes.blogspot.com%5DAURAL”>http://auralwes.blogspot.com)</p>

<p>My son is a music major as Wesleyan and was strongly considering Oberlin (we visited twice). </p>

<p>One of the big problems with Oberlin is that being a non-conservatory music major is really very much an outside-looking-in siuation. For example, non-conservatory music students are taught by conservatory students, not by faculty. </p>

<p>After visiting both, they did seem quite similar, but pretty much everything at Wes seems a notch above.</p>

<p>I’m incoming freshman into Oberlin and I believe you can take instruction from faculty if you are good enough in your audition - like if you audition for an instrument, depending on how good you are you are either placed with a conservatory student or faculty.</p>

<p>Also, there are performance opportunities absolutely, there are certain performing groups that are only open to college students. Performance groups also are mostly audition-based, so I don’t think it really matters whether you’re in college or conservatory :)</p>

<p>To some extent it probably depends on what OP means by “music scene”. Music is all over the place at Oberlin, my impression is the greater “music scene” is quite robust and quite open to all. A lot of people play instruments there, whether they are in the con or not. So in other words people like Josh Ritter and Liz Phair could emerge from there and have a great experience playing music in that kind of scene without being part of the conservatory.
[Oberlin</a> Alumni Magazine: Spring 2003](<a href=“http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/spring2003/story4.html]Oberlin”>http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/spring2003/story4.html)</p>

<p>Or, from this article, seems like Jennifer Koh too:
<a href=“Contemporary Music at Oberlin Conservatory - The New York Times”>Contemporary Music at Oberlin Conservatory - The New York Times;

<p>With respect to the more formal “academic” music training there is undoubtedly a difference between the college and the conservatory that can be highly significant, but whether this negatively impacts you depends in part on you.</p>

<p>IIRC there are some instruments where really good college students can get a music teacher from the con faculty, others no. But that isn’t necessarily a problem, because the con students who do teaching can be really, really good. These people are well on the road towards being trained to be ,or already are, professional musicians. My D1 was taught by a conservatory student, she said the student was the best teacher on her instrument she’d ever had. The student had prior teaching experience, from “the music store back home”, and was obviously great at her instrument. And teaching it.</p>

<p>IIRC there is a music major in the college, but it is not a performance major. I don’t recall all the details of how and if students in the college enroll in Con courses, but there have been posts on this topic. IIRC con students get fist dibs, in some cases there is room for others, other cases not.</p>

<p>There are performance groups for non-con students, and also some mixed performance groups.</p>